From the archives: 10 years after Bartman

I’d forgotten what Dusty Baker said in October of 2003, as well as what a Chicago columnist wrote.

Maybe you remember, and why the reaction of others made this story “a tragedy,” as one website put it this week.

My column shortly after:

Oct. 17, 2003

Don’t blame the fan for Cubs’ collapse

They call it a curse. I call it an excuse.

They prefer to demonize a fan. I prefer to see a 26-year-old Little League coach who did nothing more than look up and react as most baseball fans would.

They will latch onto this guy, adding him to Cubs’ lore, a Bill Buckner in civvies. I think they should blame the Cubs.

The same Cubs who didn’t mind pointing out a scapegoat for the mob.

The Cubs lost Wednesday as they did the night before. Both times their best pitchers came apart.

Both times the Marlins also proved to be what they’ve been since mid-May. They’ve put together the best record in baseball since then, but it’s hard to comprehend because the names aren’t familiar.

The Red Sox or Yankees should watch out. Kids named Cabrera, Lee, Pierre and Willis can play.

As for Josh Beckett, the Texan who two-hit the Cubs in Game 5 and then helped win Game 7: How many GMs in the league would rather have Kerry Wood than Beckett?

But that explanation won’t be good enough for Chicagoans. Their beloved Cubbies blew a 3-1 series lead, and that means there must be a curse.

They won’t point to Wednesday’s finale. When Wood gave up seven runs in less than six innings, that was just baseball.

But then there’s Tuesday, when a pop-up became a cultural icon, and Chicago could suffer again. Then a fan got in the way of a city and its dream.

Steve Bartman didn’t even catch the ball [he’s a Notre Dame grad, after all]. And sitting there after the play in the eighth inning, his Cubs hat on, with earphones, he had no idea what would follow.

As the inning went along, he began to get an idea. Security had to escort him out of Wrigley as the Cubs’ lead dissolved, and then his fame grew as the night turned to day, thanks partly to the press.

“Call it the Curse of the Idiot Fan,” a Chicago columnist wrote, “the Revenge of the Nerd, the Stupidity of the Goof in the Cub Cap and Headset Radio, a party pooper more outrageous and deplorable than any billy goat or black cat.”

Idiot. Goof. Deplorable.

Because he reached for a ball ruled out of play?

But the Cubs were the ones who flamed this. They reacted to Bartman as they would to an ump.

Dusty Baker should have gone to the postgame podium and given credit to the Marlins. He should have talked first about his shortstop, the one with the league’s best fielding percentage at his position, booting a grounder. And he should have said one pop foul did not give the Marlins eight runs in one inning.

Instead, when asked if the curse had anything to do with the loss, Baker first pointed at the convenient target. “No,” Baker said, “it has to do with the fan interference.”

Baker continued: “The only words I have is that maybe he was a Marlins fan. That’s the only thing I can come up with. I’ve never understood why [fans] do that, because if you’re a fan of the team, you try to get out of the way.”

Baker set the tone, and it was too good a story. No wonder media helicopters circled Bartman’s house. How many times does a fan change history?

It became network news and the stuff of talk radio. The Kornheiser-Wilbon team, trying to measure blame for the Cubs’ loss, put “Headset Man” as the No. 1 reason the Cubs lost. “I wouldn’t want to be him,” they said. “He’s meat.”

Funny, but also cruel and wrong. And here’s why.

Headset Man wasn’t like the famous 12-year-old, Jeffrey Maier, a Yankees fan who reached over a Baltimore right fielder. Maier was clearly in the field of play, and his involvement changed the scoreboard.

Bartman? He cost the Cubs a possible out, all right. But Mark Prior still got the ball back, with a 1-2 count, with the lead, with everything still in front of him.

Prior is the one who lost his poise, throwing a wild pitch, then giving up a series of hits.

As for other things Baker could have emphasized after the game: How many signs did Baker need to see before he realized Prior was gassed?

Bartman issued a statement saying he’s sorry, while also giving an explanation that everyone should have understood just by looking at the picture on the front pages of newspapers. Others were reaching for the ball, too, because that’s what fans do at games.

The Cubs should have said that, but they didn’t.

And why should this week be any different? They are known for letting people down.